Owner of the Upper Valley Nighthawks, Noah Crane shows off the team's mascot to his wife, Alyssa at their home in Lebanon, N.H., on May 25, 2016.(Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Owner of the Upper Valley Nighthawks, Noah Crane shows off the team's mascot to his wife, Alyssa at their home in Lebanon, N.H., on May 25, 2016.(Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Jennifer Hauck

Lebanon — In May, Valley News sports reporter Josh Weinreb and I spent the day with Noah Crane, general manager of the Upper Valley Nighthawks, to show readers the man behind the new summer league baseball team.

During a stop at his home in Lebanon, Crane opened some recently delivered boxes.

One of the packages included the mascot costume for the Nighthawks.

One of the fundamental rules of news photography is you don’t do anything to influence or change the scene in front of you. But in the Cranes’ dining room, all I could think was, “Please try the head on.”

I knew it would make a great image, but, of course, ethically, I couldn’t do or say anything to make it happen.

Happily, I got my wish. Crane popped the bird’s head on for his wife, Alyssa, to see, and bam, I knew I had my lead photo for the story.

Some will say that the mere fact that I was in their home changed the scene, and Crane’s behavior. I will let that be debated by professors in journalism school.

But being there is how we tell stories, and show readers that a baseball executive can also be a bit of a ham.

— Jennifer Hauck